A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga eBook

And these childish exercises will help you to develop
the mental muscles of the Attention. If you could
but realize the childish games the young Yogi students
are required to play, in order to develop the mental
faculties, you would change your minds about the Yogi
Adepts whom you have been thinking about as mere dreamers,
far removed from the practical. These men, and
their students, are intensely practical. They
have gained the mastery of the Mind, and its faculties,
and are able to use them as sharp edged tools, while
the untrained man finds that he has but a dull, unsharpened
blade that will do nothing but hack and hew roughly,
instead of being able to produce the finished product.

The Yogi believes in giving the “I” good
tools with which to work, and he spends much time
in tempering and sharpening these tools. Oh, no,
the Yogi are not idle dreamers. Their grasp of
“practical things” would surprise many
a practical, matter-of-fact Western business man, if
he could but observe it.

And so, we ask you to practice “observing things.”
The two exercises we have given are but indications
of the general line. We could give you thousands,
but you can prepare them yourselves as well as could
we. The little Hindu boy is taught Attention
by being asked to note and remember the number, color,
character and other details of a number of colored
stones, jewelry, etc., shown for an instant in
an open palm, the hand being closed the moment after.
He is taught to note and describe passing travelers,
and their equipages—­houses he sees on his
journeys—­and thousands of other everyday
objects. The results are almost marvelous.
In this way he is prepared as a chela or student,
and he brings to his guru or teacher a brain
well developed—­a mind thoroughly trained
to obey the Will of the “I”—­and
with faculties quickened to perceive instantly that
which others would fail to see in a fortnight.
It is true that he does not turn these faculties to
“business” or other so-called “practical”
pursuits, but prefers to devote them to abstract studies
and pursuits outside of that which the Western man
considers to be the end and aim of life. But
remember that the two civilizations are quite different—­following
different ideals—­having different economic
conditions—­living in different worlds, as
it were. But that is all a matter of taste and
ideals—­the faculty for the “practical
life” of the West is possessed by the chela,
if he saw fit to use it. But all Hindu youths
are not chelas, remember—­nor are
all Western youths “captains of industry,”
or Edisons.

MANTRAM (AFFIRMATION).

I am using my Attention to develop my mental faculties,
so as to give the “I” a perfect instrument
with which to work. The mind is My instrument
and I am bringing it to a state of capacity for perfect
work.